YOUR VIEW: How many boats can fish stocks support?

Tuesday

Aug 24, 2010 at 12:01 AM

Readers of Jay Lindsay's excellent article Aug. 16, "Fishing legacy fades from some New England ports," may get the impression that the changes he describes are the result of the "tough new rules" enacted in May. In fact, the region's fishing industry has faced chronic crises since at least 1791, when a delegation of vessel owners from Marblehead pled their case for increased subsidies from the newly formed federal government.

RICHARD ALLEN

Readers of Jay Lindsay's excellent article Aug. 16, "Fishing legacy fades from some New England ports," may get the impression that the changes he describes are the result of the "tough new rules" enacted in May. In fact, the region's fishing industry has faced chronic crises since at least 1791, when a delegation of vessel owners from Marblehead pled their case for increased subsidies from the newly formed federal government.

At the time, Marblehead was the largest fishing port in Massachusetts. As Lindsay reported, Marblehead no longer boasts a significant fishing fleet, a decline that spanned more than 200 years.

The decline of the Marblehead fleet occurred despite the best efforts of Rep. Elbridge Gerry, who succeeded in including a subsidy for the New England fishing industry in the second Act of the First Congress. That subsidy was debated, repealed, and re-enacted over more than 70 years.

The history of the New England groundfish fleet helps us to understand today's controversy and the policy choices that can either revitalize it or relegate it to the history books alongside the textile mills and shoe factories. Amid all the discussion over the decline in the number of groundfish boats and fishing ports, no one seems to be asking how many boats and how many ports the fish stocks can profitably support.

The need to shed excess boats doesn't come from any bureaucratic master plan or environmental manifesto. There are only so many fish in the ocean. It costs money to catch them. There is a widespread misconception that more fishing boats are good for the economy of a port. In fact, an excessive number of boats means the cost to land a given value of fish is higher than it would be with an efficient fleet.

A large percentage of those costs, for fuel, insurance, engines and electronics, goes out of the local economy, reducing the net fishing revenue that stays in the local economy. Both the fishermen and their ports suffer if policymakers enact rules that prevent the fleet from right-sizing.

About 600 groundfish boats were struggling to make a living in New England during the 1960s and early '70s. Then, as now, the average age of fishermen was increasing and few young people were coming into the fishery. In 1976 Congress passed the 200-mile limit, and fishermen were offered easy financing and vessel construction subsidies. The New England groundfish fleet doubled from 600 to 1,200 boats between 1976 and 1980.

This increase in the fleet happened at the same time that rapid technological advances were improving the catching capacity of each boat and the fishing grounds available to U.S. fishermen were being dramatically reduced by Canada's extension of fisheries jurisdiction to 200 miles. In 1984 the International Court of Justice gave the eastern portion of Georges Bank to Canada, excluding the U.S. fleet from the productive Northeast Peak. That left the U.S. with a rapidly expanding, increasingly sophisticated fleet of groundfish boats with considerably less area to fish.

Landings of groundfish in 1975 were 205 million pounds. Annual catch limits for all groundfish species in 2010 have been set at 160 million pounds, 100 million more than were landed in 2007, but 45 million less than were landed in 1975. Official numbers show that there were 739 vessels landing groundfish in fiscal year 2007, down from 955 in 2004. That still leaves the fleet with 23 percent more vessels than were active from 1965 to 1975 prior to the expansion of the fleet and the reduction in fishing grounds.

If each boat can catch more than its predecessors, the number of excess boats is even larger.

Marblehead is not likely to regain its status as the premier fishing port in New England, but other ports are making serious efforts to maintain their legacy. To do so, they will need secure, long-term access to fishery resources and a fishery management system that allows fishermen to adjust the capitalization of the fleet to a profitable level.

Economists blame the depression that characterizes the fishing industry on the wasteful competition for fish that occurs when fishermen don't have allocated catch shares. One component of the new rules that went into effect on May 1 is a catch share system that has the potential to give fishermen long-term, secure access to fish stocks.

Communities that work with their fishermen to maintain their access to resources will find that catch shares provide a valuable tool. Catch shares will increase fishermen's profits, and community commitment easements and permit banks can help to keep working fishermen in a port or attract new fishermen.

Catch shares offer fishermen the opportunity to create profitable fishing businesses without triggering the tragedy of the commons that kept New England fisheries in a chronic state of controversy for more than 200 years.

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